Posted on 10/14/2012 11:23:39 AM PDT by thecodont
The nation's drought and high corn prices are devastating California's $8 billion dairy industry to the point where farmers can't afford to feed their cows - and their professional trade organization has been regularly referring despondent dairymen to suicide hotlines.
Experts in the industry estimate that by year's end California, the largest dairy state in the nation, will have lost more than 100 dairies to bankruptcies, foreclosures and sales. Milk cows are being slaughtered at the fastest rate in more than 25 years because farmers need to save on corn costs. According to the Western United Dairymen, a California trade group, three dairy farmers have committed suicide since 2009, despairing over losing their family's dairies.
"I've never seen it as dire as it is now," said Frank Mendonsa, a Tulare dairyman who serves on the Western United Dairymen board. "Pride is just eating these guys up. People are calling me and asking me what to do. It becomes like a counseling session to stop people from hurting themselves. But it's not just losing our jobs that is driving the desperation. We're losing our houses, in some cases the same houses that our grandparents lived in, and we're losing our entire identities."
The problems started in 2009, when milk prices bottomed out and grain prices soared, partly due to the government's ethanol mandate. Congress is requiring that gasoline producers blend 15 billion gallons of ethanol, made from corn, into the nation's gas supply by 2015. Dairy farmers were forced to borrow against their land and cows to make their bills.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Calif-expected-to-lose-100-dairy-farms-3946897.php#ixzz29IaSB7WG
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This will make it that much easier to apply UN Agenda 21 to those farms.
So much for those happy cows.
Law of unintended consequences. The ethanol and milk price supports created this situation.
No mention of the highest taxes in the nation and high regulations on these farmers.
Let’s not tell the truth. That would be too easy.
I know I'm "Hoping for a Change" (Actually Praying for a Change) come Nov 6th!
Californians don’t need milk, let them drink Merlot.
The loss of dairies is a necessary sacrifice to the goddess Gaea.
“No mention of the highest taxes in the nation and high regulations on these farmers.Let’s not tell the truth. That would be too easy.”
And just how do you know this? Please provide some specifics! Most regulation on farming is at the Federal level, so show us where the State is involved. As the article points out, California is THE LARGEST DAIRY STATE in the country! Where are you going to get your milk if it goes bust? You must be a sorry excuse for a human being if you relish this kind of personal distress, but it appears that you do!
It’s so ironic. CA has both oil and cows, gov’t won’t let them have either.
Dairy farming was once a major industry in Southern California. In 1960, there were nothing but dairy farms for miles along Goldenwest St. in Huntington Beach, an area that is today filled with shopping centers, office buildings, etc. Many of their owners had Dutch names.
The last dairies in Southern California, in the Chino Valley, are rapidly disappearing.
Many of the Texas cattle ranchers lost their cattle and ranches, after last year's drought. I don't recall the rancher's being referred to a suicide hotline, though.
“Californians don’t need milk, let them drink Merlot.”
Keep your stinkling hands off of my 5 gallons of whole milk a week!!!!!
We don’t need these greedy, fly producing polluters.
We can get all the milk we need at the grocery store.
Soy Milk, Almond Milk
When you burn your food in your gas tank, this is what you get.
The dairy farmers can rest easy now, a Dairy Future Task Force has been formed to study the problem, gather information, make field trips, interview stake holders and other concerned persons.
When the subject has been thoroughly examined a report will assembled and given a public comment period, any changes discussed and a final draft prepared for the legislature and the last two dairy farmers in California to consider.
Final issue date unknown.
Government intervention in a free market never works. It only makes things worse.
In the end, everybody gets screwed -- the suppliers, the processors, the consumers. Not to mention the taxpayers, who pay for the subsidies.
Hmm, the government forces me to burn corn in my car while putting dairies out of business due to high corn prices. Nice work.
I’m surprised California doesn’t refer them to an assisted suicide hotline.
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